DANVILLE — The No. 3 Little Johns came agonizingly close in a quest for an upset-bid over the No. 1 Magazine Rattlers, but lost 35-28 in front of a standing room-only crowd at Little John Field on Friday night.

Danville entered Friday night’s matchup against Magazine seeking a bit of revenge for a 48-20 loss to the Rattlers in last year’s Class 2A state championship game. But revenge was not meant to be on a night when the Little Johns (3-2, 2-1 2A-4 Conference) nearly overcame a three-touchdown, third-quarter deficit.

Danville took the opening kickoff at its 38 and looked to be in some early trouble, facing a fourth-and-1 at the 48, but a hard signal-count from Little Johns quarterback Dakota Long drew the Magazine defense into jumping offsides to extend the drive for Danville. The Little Johns punched it in six plays later win a run off left tackle by running back Jaylen Ester, who shook off multiple Rattlers on his way to the end zone. Kevin Dominguez connected on the point-after kick to give Danville an early 7-0 lead.

The Rattlers (5-0, 2-0) started the ensuing drive from their 16, but three plays later Little John Montel Jiles made a brilliant read and intercepted an errant pass from Rattlers quarterback Ryan Chambers at the Magazine 27. The Danville offense turned to its running game, a staple of the Little Johns offensive playbook all season, on their ensuing drive. They pounded the ball up the middle with Ester and fellow running back Sean Tyra. Danville scored 8 plays later on a 2-yard run by Mike Jiles. Dominguez added the extra-point to make it 14-0 with 4:57 left in the first quarter.

Another deep kickoff by Dominguez pushed the Rattlers back to their own 10 to start their second drive. The Little John’s forced a three-and-out, but a fake punt pass by Chambers to his brother Cory Chambers gave the drive new life at the 31. Two plays later, Ryan Chambers put Magazine on the board when he hooked up with wide receiver Jack Scott on a 55-yard bomb down the left sideline to cut the Danville lead to 14-6. Magazine kicker Darrell Day tacked on the extra-point to make it 14-7 with 2:21 left in the first quarter.

The Little Johns were forced to punt from deep in their own territory on their next drive, which gave the Rattlers great field position at the Danville 43 as the first quarter came to a close. On fourth-and-2 from the 35, Tyra picked off a short pass from Ryan Chambers at the 25. The Little Johns couldn’t take advantage of the opportunity, however, as they gained only five yards on three plays. After a punt, Magazine took over at their own 30. On the first play of the drive, Cory Chambers broke free from the Danville secondary again, this time deep over the middle for a 70-yard touchdown strike. Day added another extra point to knot the score at 14.

Magazine’s defense forced another Little Johns punt after five plays, and took over at its 21 with just over seven minutes left in the half. The Rattlers scored again two plays later on a 20-yard scamper by Day with 6:27 left in the half. The touchdown was set up by a 69-yard scramble by Ryan Chambers. Day added the PAT to make it 21-14.

With a fourth-and long at the Danville 46, the Rattlers were in punt formation and appeared to be ready to give the ball back to the Little Johns offense with just under a minute left, but another successful fake-punt pass set up a first-and-10 at the Danville 26. Cory Chambers took the next handoff from up the gut for a 26-yard touchdown, and Day converted his fourth PAT to give Magazine a 28-14 advantage heading to halftime.

Magazine received the ball in the second half and began its first drive at its 35. The Rattlers continued to rely heavily on the run before eventually concluding an 8-play, 65-yard drive with another 1-yard score from Day. Day made it 35-unanswered points for the Rattlers with his fifth PAT of the game.

The Little Johns seized some much-needed momentum after a Magazine onside kick attempt failed to go the necessary 10 yards. Danville set up at the Rattler 45 and drove 30 yards down the field before Tyra took a handoff around the right corner for 15 yards and a touchdown, the Little Johns first points since the opening period. Dominguez tallied his third extra-point to make the score 35-21 with 6:14 left in the third.

Magazine took over at their own 20 following a touchback midway through the third. The Rattlers made a costly error deep in their own territory when Cory Chambers fielded a low punt, slipped and was downed at his own 38 on fourth-and-long.

Danville capitalized four plays later when running back Tyra again showcased his speed in taking the outside sweep to the right and turning the corner in a hurry, before diving inside the pylon for a 23-yard score. Dominguez added another PAT to make it a one score game 35-28.

The Little Johns defense came up with a huge stop on fourth-and-1 on an aggressive play call from the Magazine coaching staff. With 33 seconds to play in the third quarter, Danville took over at the Magazine 25, needing a touchdown to even the score for the first time since midway through the first quarter. The Little Johns took it all the way down to the Magazine 5, but were stopped on fourth-and-2 and gave the ball back to the Rattlers with five minutes gone in the fourth quarter.

An extremely unfortunate situation occurred near the seven-minute mark in the fourth. Ryan Chambers, the MVP of the 2010 Class 2A state championship game, suffered an undisclosed injury on a 21-yard quarterback scramble down the left sideline. Chambers was carted off the field on a stretcher and was taken to Chambers Memorial Hospital.

Following the break, backup quarterback Charley Moua and the Rattlers offense took over at the Danville 25 with 6:52 left in the fourth. The Magazine offense wasted a precious four minutes off the clock on six-straight run plays before a fumble on a botched field goal attempt at the 2:05 mark gave it back to the Little Johns.

Facing fourth-and-12 from the Danville 35, Little Johns quarterback Dakota Long had the ball batted down on a pass over the middle that ended Danville’s hopes of a big-time comeback.

“I believe both teams really showed tonight why I think we are the two best teams in Conference AA,” Little Johns Head Coach D.J. Crane said. “Both teams had a lot of opportunities to get things done and, simply put, Magazine was able to convert on more of their opportunities than we were. Obviously we jumped on them early in the first, and made a tremendous attempt at a comeback late, but unfortunately it just didn’t work out for us in the end. We definitely had a lot of positives to take away from the game tonight though.”

With the loss, Danville moves to 3-2 on the year and will face Mountainburg at home next weekend. With the win, Magazine remains a perfect 4-0 on the year in their quest to defend their 2010 Conference 2A state championship.